Really depends on who you ask. I have meet some really strict paleo people who are against any and all supplements. One of the biggest concepts of the paleo diet is to mimic the diet of our ancestors, specifically cave men. I have spoken with people who use the argument, "they didn't take creatine back then so why should I?" or say things like "drinking protein shakes are cheating". Personally I think many of the followers of paleo get way too dogmatic about it. You have to adapt the diet to your needs and goals and see what works for you. There is no one size fits all diet out there. I follow paleo simply because I feel better when I do but I still eat tubers, drink whey, eat green beans, take supplements and etc. BCAAs have been proven to be beneficial so I would say go for it, but make it a personal choice for you and not because some diet mandates it

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Thanks for the insight. I don't really have any glaring health issues other than needing to drop 20-30lbs. When Im strict with my eating, its usually 3 meals of chicken or porkchops with veggies and OO for my 3 meals in my lunchbox. I try not to eat many carve in general except when on my junk food hinge, whzich is running into about week 16 or so, which is the extra 20-30. So the diet in general wouldn't bbs that hard for me to stick to. I've done jerk enough times to know what going low darn is like and that I can do it when I actually decide to. So adding in the fruits to the meat and veggies that I normally eat wont be that hard mentally. My morning breakfast will be the hardest when I go to the gym before work. Packing hard boiled.eggs didn't win over too many friends when I cracked them open in the office but oh well. Losing the dairy might be the challenge since I eat cottage cheeses and low darn high protein yogurt. My go to easy breakfast is 2 vanilla carbmaster yogurts with some warmed crunchy natty PB stirred in.

The problem with the paleo diet is that you are most likely not active enough for it to help. Our ancestors foraged daily typically on a empty stomach until they found food, they also hunted which required days of tracking sometimes. You just cant compare going to the gym 3-5 days a week for even 3 hours to what they did. Maybe if you ran to the gym daily than trained but thats it.

Originally Posted by youngandfree

Hey guys, I'm looking into the Paleo diet and am curious if BCAA's are ok while doing Paleo.

The problem with the paleo diet is that you are most likely not active enough for it to help. Our ancestors foraged daily typically on a empty stomach until they found food, they also hunted which required days of tracking sometimes. You just cant compare going to the gym 3-5 days a week for even 3 hours to what they did. Maybe if you ran to the gym daily than trained but thats it.

That's a valid point, but the cavemen weren't tryingto build.muscle and stay lean either. They didn't care if they lost muscle mass or not. I would be concerned and was curious if BCAA's would benefit since there aren't any calories in them.

That's a valid point, but the cavemen weren't tryingto build.muscle and stay lean either. They didn't care if they lost muscle mass or not. I would be concerned and was curious if BCAA's would benefit since there aren't any calories in them.

Sure If it were me, I would take bcaas on this diet, if it were me knowing that cavemen were more active I would eat less calories because you will need less than them, therefore adding bcaas to your snack meals or all meals like nuts would be great there so cheap I would mega dose them.Cheap supllements brand bcaas are really cheap and work, check them out. Try them on a empty stomach however I think they will be mostly destroyed by stomach acids before being fully digested. I would say pop a few fish oils first on a empty stomach than wait about 3-5 min and pop bcaas, it might help.

If your trying to drop 20 pounds than I think you would do better with at least one more little meal, cut your biggest meal in half, get up earlier if you have to and eat half your breakfast than before leaving for work or wherever you go eat the other half in the car.

no problem, not trying to bash your diet, hope it works, lots of people like it and do well on it, just give it ample time like 3 months, most cutting diets try not to loos more that a pound a week but if your not concerned with muscle loss than go super low calories, right before the point of driving you mad with hunger, you will loose more like 2 pounds a week, some muscle for sure. I did this when i was fat went from 200 fat to 164 at 7-8% bodyfat pounds cutting to hard, now trying to build back up. In general add your cals and burn more than you eat and this will occur, it has to, your body will have no option.

I eat a paleo/primal/caveman/(whatever you want to call it) diet myself. BCAA's are not on the "restricted foods" list, if that's what you're wondering. However, as JudoJosh pointed out, most paleo-lifestyle types will argue that our primal ancestors didn't use supplements (they got their BCAAs from food) -- so if your goal is to emulate the primal lifestyle as accurately as possible then you'd skip the BCAA supps and just eat your whole food protein.

That said, like Rodja, I use them in conjunction with my primal diet. I do this because I have different goals than the typical caveman, and BCAAs assist me in achieving these goals.

But so you know, the #1 reason that most paleo experts would tell you NOT to use BCAAs is that they are HIGHLY insulinogenic. That is, BCAAs stimulate your body to release large amounts of insulin (much like sugar). One of the main benefits (if not THE main benefit) of paleo eating is that you keep insulin under control almost all of the time. So BCAA supplementation may be seen as counterproductive to this benefit.

I eat a paleo/primal/caveman/(whatever you want to call it) diet myself. BCAA's are not on the "restricted foods" list, if that's what you're wondering. However, as JudoJosh pointed out, most paleo-lifestyle types will argue that our primal ancestors didn't use supplements (they got their BCAAs from food) -- so if your goal is to emulate the primal lifestyle as accurately as possible then you'd skip the BCAA supps and just eat your whole food protein.

That said, like Rodja, I use them in conjunction with my primal diet. I do this because I have different goals than the typical caveman, and BCAAs assist me in achieving these goals.

But so you know, the #1 reason that most paleo experts would tell you NOT to use BCAAs is that they are HIGHLY insulinogenic. That is, BCAAs stimulate your body to release large amounts of insulin (much like sugar). One of the main benefits (if not THE main benefit) of paleo eating is that you keep insulin under control almost all of the time. So BCAA supplementation may be seen as counterproductive to this benefit.

Thanks for the insight. I'm not looking to be dogmatic about it, so it wouldn't be a big deal.

I understand where you are coming from in the context of this discussion but this is not entirely accurate.

The anti-catabolic effects experienced by those who slam a BCAA drink (15-30 grams) can be invaluable to some SOLO (no simultaneous food intake), especially when ingested pre/post training or pre/post cardio or when dieting (attempting to reduce calories yet keep amino profile decent) or even first thing AM to thwart some early morning cortisol levels esp when dieting.

Originally Posted by greekgeorge

Imo bcaas are food dependent they turn a little snack into a better amino profile, not to be taken on an empty stomach.

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